Cooperative Navigation using Inter-Vehicle Ranging and Magnetic Measurements
The objective of this research project is to enable groups of networked vehicles to perform robust relative and global navigation using inter-vehicle ranging and magnetic measurements. The presented approach contains two sequential steps: first, an algorithm called cooperative ranging localization, formulated as an Extended Kalman Filter (EKF), estimates each vehicle’s relative pose inside the group using inter-vehicle ranging measurements; second, an algorithm named cooperative magnetic localization, formulated as a particle filter, estimates each vehicle’s global pose through matching the group’s magnetic measurements to a given magnetic map.
Precision Pollination Robot
The objective for this project is to design a prototype pollinator robot, named BrambleBee, and perform proof-of-concept demonstrations of its effectiveness for brambles (i.e. blackberry and raspberry) pollination in a greenhouse environment. During the project, we developed the ability to precisely locate, evaluate, interact, and manipulate small and delicate plant structures within unstructured, low-dynamic, and GPS-challenged environments, which is an enabling technology for supporting future integrated crop management systems.
Human-Robot Collaboration In Smart Warehouses
Safety is of critical concern in human-robot collaboration. A human-in-the-loop experiment was conducted to assess the performance of the customized robot control scheme in a smart warehouse setting, where the human participants performed order picking and assembly tasks, and the mobile robot performed simulated pallet moving tasks.
NASA Sample Return Robot Centennial Challenge (Year 2016)
The main idea of NASA Sample Return Robot(SRR) Centennial Challenge was to encourage inovators to build fully-autonomous robots that can find, retrieve, and return samples in a large (~80,000m^2) outdoor environment without relying on Earth based technologies (e.g. GPS or magnetormeter). In 2016, the robot we built, named “Cataglyphis”, completed the final SRR Challenge and won a $750,000 prize.
Robotic Printer (Summer Project)
The Robotic Printer is a movable printer, which means user can carry it and print whatever they want. Compared to other movable printers, the Robotic Printer can print in any kind of background, such as white board, cement ground or rubber ground. Also, the Robotic Printer fits various pens, like Marker pen, pencil or chalk.